Early Days

Since the existence of man, he has used natural objects as tools to assist him in performing tasks he alone was not capable of doing e.g. a stone to crush a hard seed or a branch of a tree to dislodge a large rock.  This practice allowed man to do much more in a much shorter period of time.

At the same time, however, man also discovered that working with these tools could cause injury and even death.  Some practices caused disease due to the material that was handled or the environment where the work was undertaken.